Researchers 'poison' Storm botnet

**Glaswegian** · 04-25-2008, 12:28 PM

A group of German researchers has unveiled the first publicly released research attempting to actively disrupt a peer-to-peer botnet - using as their case study the notorious Storm worm.

The researchers were able not only to infiltrate Storm, gaining in the process the most precise estimates of its size to date, but also had success in disrupting its communications through a "poisoning" technique, according to the study.

The study, "Measurements and Mitigation of Peer-to-Peer-based Botnets", was authored by five researchers working with the University of Mannheim and Institut Eurécom, and was presented at the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET) earlier this month in San Francisco.

Botnets have become among the most pressing threats on the internet, accounting for most spam and capable of directing large-scale denial-of-service and other categories of attacks.

http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12094

04-25-2008, 12:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
Glaswegian Moderator/ Rangemaster TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team; Oor Wullie; TSF Surgeon and Resident Comic Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 20,698 OS: Win XP Pro SP3 My System Blog Entries: 9	Researchers 'poison' Storm botnet A group of German researchers has unveiled the first publicly released research attempting to actively disrupt a peer-to-peer botnet - using as their case study the notorious Storm worm. The researchers were able not only to infiltrate Storm, gaining in the process the most precise estimates of its size to date, but also had success in disrupting its communications through a "poisoning" technique, according to the study. The study, "Measurements and Mitigation of Peer-to-Peer-based Botnets", was authored by five researchers working with the University of Mannheim and Institut Eurécom, and was presented at the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET) earlier this month in San Francisco. Botnets have become among the most pressing threats on the internet, accounting for most spam and capable of directing large-scale denial-of-service and other categories of attacks. http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12094 __________________ Iain - Defender of the Haggis and all things Scottish. I don't help by PM - post in the Forums. Ad-Aware::SpywareBlaster::SpyBot::SpywareGuard::SnoopFree::AVG Free::HOSTS File::HijackThis::Donate::5 Steps For Infected PCs